Between the 29th July and the 7th August, two members of Milestone’s Natural Sciences Society, Lajos Palánki and Marcell Dorián Kovács, participated in the 2017 Summer School of Science located in Požega, Croatia.
This Summer School programme has a long tradition of Science education, giving students who attend the opportunity to work on an actual scientific project with a few team members under the guidance of a project leader who is generally a PhD student. Participants were from 11 European countries, thereby making it a truly International experience.
Almost every day of the camp, students worked for some eight hours on their project. Lajos investigated aerodynamic properties through an extensive simulation program, while Marcell worked on a project about modelling and simulating the light emissions from meteors.
However, the camp was not just about Physics as there were several projects in Biology, Chemistry and Computer Science. So-called ‘swapshops’ were also organised in order to introduce everyone to a different field from their original interests.
After the project work, everyone gathered in the Great Hall to listen to lectures by invited scientists of famous institutions. They spoke about their research, their experiences and even about their life decisions which led them to become scientists. Topics included AI research, Particle Physics, Tuberculosis, Alzheimer’s disease and many more. Much emphasis was placed upon creating a good community: after the lectures, students organised social activities for the evening including a Bar Quiz, Karaoke, Music, Drama and Comedy to take everyone’s minds off Science for a short time. The participants also had to the chance to visit one of Croatia’s most beautiful natural parks and to rest for a day before returning to work.
At the end of the week, every team presented their project followed by a lively discussion on the topic. The camp ended with a farewell party. The Summer School gave students a small insight into the daily work and the daily struggles of scientists but this served to increase their motivation to become one. It was also a great opportunity to meet with people from different countries, create new friendships and, most importantly, to be inspired by scientific research.